Tech Week That Was: National Security, Privacy And Ballmer

Glenn Greenwald is the blogger and journalist who broke the story about widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency. His partner, David Miranda, was detained at London's Heathrow Airport earlier this week.

Sergio MoraesReuters/Landov

Originally published on August 23, 2013 5:27 pm

Each Friday we round up the big conversations in tech and culture during the week that was. We also revisit the work that appeared on this blog and highlight what we're reading from our fellow technology writers and observers at other organizations.

The tangled web of national security and technology kept reporters busy this week, with the release of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court's decision that parts of the NSA email surveillance program were unconstitutional, the sentencing of Bradley Manning and news of the U.K. police's meddling with Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who broke the details of sweeping U.S. surveillance programs leaked by Edward Snowden. On Monday, the U.K. police detained and questioned David Miranda, Greenwald's partner, at Heathrow Airport. The incident led The Guardian to reveal a previously unknown incident in which the U.K. government destroyed hard drives with those NSA leaks that Greenwald obtained.

Friday, the conversation shifted to Microsoft and a big personnel change at the top. Company CEO Steve Ballmer plans to retire within the year. Who will succeed him is likely to dominate conversations into the weekend. In the meantime, Steve Henn has some tips for the next Microsoft chief.

Getting closer to a Minority Report-like society: "The plan, according to a 'privacy impact assessment,' was to use 30 volunteers whose facial data would be mingled in a database among 1,000 mug shots to see whether the system could reliably recognize when any of the volunteers were present," reports The Times.